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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23192455">Places We Go To (Are All That We’ve Got)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeveee/pseuds/aeveee'>aeveee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Power Rangers (2017)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:21:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,631</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23192455</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeveee/pseuds/aeveee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Kim and Jace are leaving for their romantic getaway tomorrow morning and you’re going to sit here playing house with me? Come on.”</p><p>“It’s not a romantic getaway. It’s just spring break.”</p><p>“It’s a road trip. That’s literally a romantic getaway.”</p><p>“Drop it, Zack,” Trini says.</p><p>or:</p><p>You need to leave first, to come home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Billy Cranston &amp; Trini, Kimberly Hart &amp; Jason Lee Scott, Kimberly Hart/Trini, Zack Taylor &amp; Trini</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>321</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Places We Go To (Are All That We’ve Got)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title taken from ‘La Lune’ by Billie Marten.</p><p>Unbeta'ed. All mistakes herein are mine.</p><p>For <a href="https://aeveee.tumblr.com/post/163815988963/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you">this</a> writing exercise (although I may have veered semi-wildly off course).</p><p>Prompt: 49) "Call me when you get home"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trini finds out from Billy over lukewarm macaroni and cheese from the school cafeteria. He’s eating a sandwich with enough meat to last a lifetime, striated carefully based on type; Trini watches with envy as he bites into it and a bit of tomato and lettuce fall out.</p><p>“What does it mean when you’re in a group and one person only talks to you and completely ignores the other person there?” Billy asks once he’s done chewing. Trini looks at him carefully over her bite of overcooked pasta.</p><p>“When has that happened?”</p><p>“Last night. Jason came over with Pearl and she spent the whole night talking to me. She wouldn’t talk to Jason.”</p><p>“Huh,” Trini hums. She thinks of her brothers, baby-faced but quickly growing long and lean. She remembers them tugging on her in turn, demanding her attention if only so the other one wouldn’t get it. “Siblings fight, sometimes.”</p><p>“Is that what that is?”</p><p>Trini shrugs. “Could be. Pearl is usually pretty chill though.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Billy says. He looks a little down as he says it, frowns at the sandwich in his hands. “I thought she really wanted to know how to put a circuit board together. Guess not.”</p><p>“Hey, come on.” Billy looks up when Trini carefully taps the table beside his elbow. She tries for a reassuring smile. “She probably did. It’s a lot of effort to listen to you talk about electronics, take it from me. She wouldn’t do it if she wasn’t interested.”</p><p>Billy seems to consider Trini’s words - takes in the way she’s trying for a kind smile, the joke in her words that she’d made sure he understood after the first time he’d mistaken her for serious - before abruptly smiling. A piece of tomato slips out as he waves his sandwich around. “Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I’ll teach her how to put her own computer together while Jason and Kim are out of town.”</p><p>Trini blinks. “What now?”</p><p>“I know she’s only twelve but I started building my own computers at that age and - ”</p><p>“Not that part,” Trini says, shaking her head and waiting for Billy to settle down. “I meant the part about Jason and Kim not being in town?”</p><p>“Oh,” Billy says. He frowns, takes another careful bite of his sandwich and chews while Trini just watches him. “Her and Jason are going on a road trip for spring break. Did you - did you want to go too?”</p><p>Trini thinks of Jason with his blonde curls and the way his broad shoulders seem to perfectly fit Kimberly’s head whenever she needs a place to lean on. Her stomach churns at the thought. “No. I was just - you know what, never mind.”</p><p>Billy blinks. “Okay.”</p><p>A few minutes later, the rest of the crew shows up in a mess of shoving and laughter and Trini gives Zack her macaroni, rolls her eyes as he pretends to be offended with her leftovers even as he shovels it into his mouth. Kimberly settles down beside her, warm against Trini’s side.</p><p>“And how has your day been, beautiful?” Kimberly whispers into her ear.</p><p>Kimberly’s eyes are soft and brown, crinkling a little as she smiles at Trini. Trini swallows whatever it is that’s stuck in her throat as Jason smiles over at her too and she focuses on nudging Kimberly in the side with a playful elbow, barely managing to cough out, “Better before you got here, princess.”</p><p>Kimberly’s laughter is musical; Trini feels something in her seize. “Love you too, Trin.”</p><p>Trini doesn’t miss the way Jason watches her as she ducks her head.</p><p>–</p><p>“Are you planning on just hiding here all night?”</p><p>Trini looks up from chopping tomatoes and makes a swipe for the chili pepper in Zack’s hand. He dodges her, leans back far enough to look like he’s going to fall off the countertop, and for one heart-stopping moment Trini thinks he just might. In the background, one of Trini’s brothers yells at the other one to give up the controller.</p><p>“I’m making dinner - something you’re benefiting from too, I might add.”</p><p>“Whatever,” Zack says, putting the chili down and picking up the bunch of cilantro. He sniffs it and pulls a face. “Feeding me doesn’t change the fact that you’re being a coward.”</p><p>“You don’t need to be fed,” Trini says. Zack puts the cilantro down with a huff of mock offense. “You don’t even need to be here.”</p><p>“Who else is going to operate the heavy machinery?” Zack gestures at the molcajete.</p><p>“Please. You did none of the work for that.”</p><p>Zack laughs, waving his hands in an attempt to placate. Trini just scoffs and motions for him to bring the molcajete over, deftly transfers the tomatoes into the creamy avocado paste and holds a spoon out for Zack to mix the tomatoes in with. A quick search of a cupboard finds the chips and she hollers for her brothers to come downstairs as she pulls on an oven mitt, opens the oven door and gently slides a tray of her mother’s enchiladas out into the cool kitchen air.</p><p>“Man,” Trini hears from behind her and she turns to find Zack adding a few pinches of salt into the guacamole, “man, do I ever love your mom’s cooking.”</p><p>“Just get the guac and chips out, you idiot, and help my brothers set the table.”</p><p>“Ay ay, capitan,” Zack mock salutes with a grin, and Trini prays her brothers didn’t hear that so she doesn’t have to listen to them do it for the next week.</p><p>Dinner is a rowdy affair, all three boys burning their tongues on their food even as Trini warns them it’s hot. Zack makes unnecessary lip smacking noises whenever Trini looks at him, laughs uproariously when her brothers copy him, and refuses to finish the guacamole even though Trini knows it’s his favourite.</p><p>“Seriously, just eat it,” Trini says. Her brothers are mock sword fighting with two chips and Trini uses a deft hand to pluck them out of their fingers. Zack uses the distraction to push the guacamole in her brothers’ direction, telling them that if they’re going to play with the chips then they clearly have time to help finish the food. Her brothers take one look at her and push it back at Zack.</p><p>“You eat it. You’re bigger than us,” Trini’s youngest brother says. He’s got a bit of cheese on his chin and Trini resists the urge to reach over and wipe at it. Instead she smiles at him, soft and warm, and he grins widely back at her.</p><p>“You calling me fat, little man?” Zack cries out, and her brothers squeal as he moves to tickle them. Trini sighs, pushes the dishes towards the centre of the table so flailing limbs don’t hit them. In the end, she has to yell for them to settle down and Zack shovels the rest of the guacamole into his mouth before Trini can yell at him again, moves to gather the dishes and the Herrera boys and sets all of them up at the sink for dish duty.</p><p>“Hey,” Zack says after as Trini comes down the stairs, brothers gently tucked into bed with a kiss to each of their foreheads. “I meant what I said before, you’re being dumb about this.”</p><p>“Dumb about what?”</p><p>“Kim and Jace are leaving for their romantic getaway tomorrow morning and you’re going to sit here playing house with me? Come on.”</p><p>“It’s not a romantic getaway. It’s just spring break.”</p><p>“It’s a road trip. That’s literally a romantic getaway.”</p><p>“Drop it, Zack,” Trini says, but Zack gathers her into his arms, squeezes tight.</p><p>“I’m not your best friend if I’m not going to nag you. Someone’s gotta do it.”</p><p>“I have a mother for that,” Trini grumbles, but she slips her arms around Zack’s waist all the same. He holds her for a few moments longer before letting her go, stretching out with a sigh.</p><p>“Speaking of, I gotta head home. My mom’s probably wondering where I am.”</p><p>“I packed a Tupperware for her, let me go get it.”</p><p>“You didn’t need to do that,” Zack says, but his voice is weak and he folds in a little on himself despite the defiant twist of his lips. Trini reaches over, squeezes his arm until he looks at her.</p><p>“Hey, I did it because I wanted to, not because I think you need it. You got that?”</p><p>Zack’s grin, slow as it is, is beautiful as it unfurls. “Thanks, T.”</p><p>“Get home safe,” Trini says after she gives Zack the Tupperware packed full with refried beans, rice, and more than a few enchiladas. He looks at it, then at Trini, before snapping off a smart salute as he heads down the front steps.</p><p>“Call your girl, T,” he calls out, ambling down her driveway. Trini just shakes her head, closes the door, and heads upstairs to do anything but that.</p><p>–</p><p>
  <em>Hi, you’ve reached Trini Herrera’s phone. I’m not here right now. Leave a message after the beep and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Peace.</em>
</p><p>“Hey, it’s me. Just wanted to give you a shout before I head out with Jason. I know it’s the literal butt crack of dawn and you’re sleeping but text me when you get this. I’ll hopefully be a few hours out of Angel Grove by then. Let me know if you want anything from Trader Joe’s. Love ya.”</p><p>Trini listens to the message at 7:03 AM, then at 7:04, then 7:05. Her phone tells her Kimberly left that message at 4:42 in the morning. Trini stares at her screen.</p><p>“Fuck. Fuck.”</p><p>She opens her text thread with Kimberly and thinks of putting some long message in it: something about how she had meant to call but had fallen asleep, something about how she hopes Kimberly has a great time. Instead, she settles for a <em>Just woke up, tell J to drive safe. I’ll see you when you get back</em> and leaves it at that.</p><p>The <em>morning beautiful</em> she gets not ten minutes later followed by a photo of the sunrise she had clearly missed makes her stomach twist. Twenty minutes after that <em>it’s my turn to drive you should be telling all that to me</em> flashes on her screen accompanied by a picture of Kimberly at the wheel. Trini puts her phone down, steps into her shower, turns the water to scalding and tries to ignore the fact that it was clearly Jason taking that picture.</p><p>She texts back <em>Tell J I said I’m praying for him</em> around lunchtime and if Kimberly doesn’t respond for the rest of the day, Trini tries not to think too much on that. She has no idea where they’re going, assumes they’re just driving anywhere to get anywhere, assumes Kimberly is occupied at the wheel. She goes to bed after a day of wrangling her brothers to and from soccer practice and her parents from the airport. At the last moment, she pulls up Kimberly’s thread and taps out <em>Night Kim</em> before putting her phone away.</p><p>She dreams of stars in her chest and Kimberly’s hand in hers, a long stretch of endless road in front of them.</p><p>--</p><p>Her phone ringing startles her into wakefulness. Trini checks her alarm clock - 08:01, Trini resists the urge to growl - before scrabbling for her phone, pressing to accept the call.</p><p>“Hello?”</p><p>“Good morning, Trini!”</p><p>Billy sounds unsurprisingly chipper in the morning; Trini would groan if she didn’t love the boy so much. Instead she sits up, pushes at the nest that is her hair and says, “Morning, B.”</p><p>“I waited until after eight to call,” Billy says, and Trini can hear him shuffling, a nervous fidget that can’t be hidden over the line. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”</p><p>“Nah, you’re good.” Trini wipes at her eyes, stretches her toes a little bit. She enjoys the way her sheets feel against her skin in the cool morning air. “What’s up?”</p><p>“Oh, um.” Shuffling, and then, “I was wondering if you had any plans for today?”</p><p>Trini thinks for a moment, runs through her checklist of things she needs to do with her family. She comes up short. “I don’t think so. Did you want to do something together?”</p><p>“I’m looking after Pearl today. I’m going to teach her the basics of working with electronics. I thought maybe I should ask to see if you and your brothers would like to join? Or rather, my mom mentioned that it might be something your brothers would be interested in and I told her I’d ask and I am - I’m asking now. Are you free today?”</p><p>Trini smiles. Her chest feels warm and light - she wonders, for a moment, if what she’s feeling is Billy through the morph. A second of reaching confirms that it is and it makes her smile even more, folding her warmth into his. “Let me go see if they’re up and I’ll ask them and call you back, okay?”</p><p>“Okay!” Billy says. He waits carefully until Trini says an indulgent goodbye and Trini laughs a little to herself at how kind Billy is, how sweet, how beautiful.</p><p>She shows up at Billy’s doorstep around lunch time with her brothers in tow, a backpack overflowing with Tupperwares of food her mother had pressed into her hands slung over one shoulder - <em>“They are looking after you and your brothers for the day, you cannot go empty handed, mija!”</em> - and she blinks in surprise when it’s Pearl who answers the door.</p><p>“Hi, Trini,” Pearl says evenly. Trini gives a half wave in reply. “Billy’s downstairs getting everything ready. He said to come down in ten minutes and his mom left us snacks in the kitchen if we want anything. She just stepped out for groceries.”</p><p>Trini nods, watches as Pearl eyes her, then her brothers. “I brought lunch for all of us. I’ll just put it in the kitchen?”</p><p>“Sure,” Pearl says. She takes a step back, lets Trini and her brothers in. Pearl has the same big eyes and long lashes as her brother, the same determined set in her jaw. Where Jason has a year’s worth of regret hardening his, Pearl still has the softness of youth. Trini wonders for a brief moment if Jason had looked like that too.</p><p>“Boys, come here and help me put these in the fridge,” Trini calls out. Her brothers trot in behind the counter with her, hands obediently held up to accept containers. Together, they work to fit the Tupperwares into the few empty spaces Trini can find in the Cranstons’ fridge - Trini notes this, smiles softly to herself at Mrs. Cranston’s attempt to give her son some time with his friends.</p><p>“All done?” Pearl says a while later, head poking up from the opening into the family room. Trini nods, closes the fridge and gently ushers her brothers out. They lean back a little into her hands, uncharacteristically quiet, and Trini presses a warm palm into each of their backs. She remembers the feeling of her father’s palm on her first day of school and the comfort she found there when he just let her be. Her brothers look up at her, then away.</p><p>Pearl is the one who leads them all into the basement. She’s silent as she takes each step, feet careful and hand gliding along the railing. Her brothers look about ready to tumble down in their impatience but a quick tap on each of their heads curbs them and they latch onto the railing too, follow Pearl’s even steps.</p><p>Billy is dusting his hands on the front of his neatly pressed khakis when he sees them and the grin that spreads across his face could outshine the sun, Trini thinks. It’s blinding. She finds her lips tugging up in return and even her brothers seem to forget their shyness when Billy waves at them, entire body wiggling with the effort.</p><p>“Trini! You’re here! And your brothers.”</p><p>“Say hi,” Trini murmurs when her brothers stop after their first few running steps forward. Her youngest brother looks back at her and Trini thinks of herself at that age, quiet and dark and uncertain. It makes her smile. “This is my friend Billy. He’s the one who thought you guys might want to learn how to build your own computers.”</p><p>“That’s - that’s cool,” one of her brothers says. And then, as if suddenly remembering their mother’s words: “Thank you for inviting us over. We brought lunch.”</p><p>“Oh,” Billy says. He crinkles his brow for a moment, then abruptly claps his hands. “That’s awesome. I should go text my mom to let her know she doesn’t need to get us food.”</p><p>He taps out a quick message with sure fingers before locking his phone, slipping it easily into a pant pocket. The sweater he’s chosen to wear today is a rich, vibrant blue and Trini thinks of Billy in his suit in the sun, so warm and soft against the afternoon sky. The grin he always has when Jason goes to sit next to him is the biggest Trini ever sees and she always wants to hug him then, the sharp memory of Billy drowning dulled by the boy’s eager wave. Trini thinks that this is the most at ease Billy has been around her when Jason isn’t around. He smiles beautifully, settles cross legged behind the gigantic hunk of metal he has set out on the floor and beams at them.</p><p>“Hey, so, how about we get started?”</p><p>Billy waits for Pearl and her brothers to settle in a half circle. Pearl pulls an elastic from her wrist and twists her hair into a tight bun, fingers moving with a practiced ease Trini has never had. Trini thinks then of the dance recitals Jason’s mentioned and the pride with which he’d talked about them. Pearl seems completely at ease as Billy starts explaining the main parts of a CPU, going over the casing and the biggest pieces they’ll see when he begins to take it apart.</p><p>“We’re only going to go over the parts today and practice getting to know them. Next time we can go over the basics of wiring and choosing hard drives and stuff. Cool?”</p><p>“Cool!” all three of his audience say in unison. Trini remains silent until Billy looks at her.</p><p>“Cool?” he repeats. There is no judgement or frustration, just a genuine question from a genuine boy. Trini fights the urge to smile and instead teasingly rolls her eyes.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah. Let’s crack this baby open and get on with the show.” Billy smiles at her then, getting Trini’s brand of humour, feeling the warmth of it through the morph and the trust of months of Trini saying one thing but always, always showing him she means a better one.</p><p>At Billy’s direction, her youngest brother hands over the screwdriver Billy has lined up neatly amongst all of his other tools. He moves to the first screw before pausing, a thoughtful look crossing his face. Trini raises an eyebrow in question.</p><p>“I’m going to undo the first screw, you guys can try the other ones, okay?”</p><p>Pearl nods just once, a perfect image of her brother. Trini’s brothers fidget in excitement at the thought of being entrusted with even this simple task. Trini herself stays silent as Billy carefully undoes the first screw, then hands the screwdriver over to her brother with an encouraging nod. For a second, she’s worried that she’ll have to say something about sharing but the screwdriver gets handed over as soon as the second screw is out and Trini is proud, proud and happy to be able to share this moment with her siblings, forever grateful for Billy.</p><p>The afternoon passes easily. They take a quick break for lunch, reheating the overstuffed Tupperwares full of food Trini’s mother has packed until the Cranstons’ place smells almost like her own. The second half of their workshop involves Billy animatedly explaining things in the belly of the opened CPU, pointing out parts and letting the kids handle them despite the fact that they look delicate. Trini snaps a photo of Billy as he hovers on his elbows while Pearl carefully pries the cover off of something. Her brothers are the quietest they’ve been in a while, one instinctively shifting to the side to let the other see. It’s a rare moment of peace. Trini sends it to Kimberly.</p><p>The text she gets back of <em>looks like you and billy are getting up to no good in our absence</em> comes just after she’s managed to herd her brothers to Billy’s front door. She ignores it, pockets her phone in favour of thanking Billy and his mother again for having them over.</p><p>“It’s truly our pleasure, Trini,” Mrs. Cranston says. She looks so happy just to see her son having fun with friends. “You know you’re always welcome.”</p><p>“We still have lots to go over,” Billy pipes in. Pearl is nowhere to be seen, still downstairs in the basement pouring over the motherboard Billy had let her take out. “I was thinking we could do this again in a few days?”</p><p>“Yeah, that sounds cool,” Trini says. Her brothers nod beside her before the older one tugs on Trini’s backpack filled with empty and washed Tupperware containers. It dwarfs him a little despite the fact that he’s growing so fast. Trini thinks he’ll be taller than her in no time and it makes her heart swell. “Text me and we’ll be there.”</p><p>“Thanks, Billy,” her brothers chorus. “Thanks, Mrs. Cranston.”</p><p>“I’ll catch you later, B,” Trini says, and then they’re out in the cool evening air.</p><p>She sends a quick <em>Gotta make the most of our time free of you suckers</em> to Kimberly after some debate and then she has to pocket her phone again, giving her hands up to her brothers so they can tug her along the sidewalk. Their excited rambling of the day’s events makes it seem like she hadn’t been there herself. She laughs at that, ruffles her youngest brother’s hair when he asks her what she’s laughing at.</p><p>“So I take it you guys had a good time?”</p><p>“Yeah!” her brother says. “Billy is really cool.”</p><p>“And Pearl,” her other brother pipes in. “She was really good with taking the wires off.”</p><p>Her brothers descend into overlapping rambling again and Trini lets them be, swinging their hands a bit before her brothers shrug her off. They claim to be too old to be walking hand in hand with their sister in public and all Trini can do is shake her head. She pulls out her phone and is greeted by a notification of a new text.</p><p><em>miss you too, t</em> is Kimberly’s message. Swiping it open reveals a selfie of Kimberly with wet hair and lips puckered into an exaggerated smooch. Jason is a ways behind her, profile sharp and strong despite the distance. Trini thinks of Kimberly as they come up from the ship, clothes dripping, adrenaline singing through tired veins. She thinks of Kimberly in the setting sun with the warmth of sun-baked boulders beneath their thighs and Zack’s leather jacket shared across their shoulders. For a second, all Trini feels is the sear of jealousy and the unwanted question of who is it that Kimberly thinks of in her own quiet. Then it’s gone, replaced by some sort of self-recrimination. Kimberly is her own person, she can go where she wants, with whoever she wants. Who is Trini to feel anything negative about that?</p><p>She sends a quick <em>Night. Hope the driving’s been going well</em> just as she reaches her front porch and lets her mother’s usual barrage of questions wash out the unease.</p><p>--</p><p>She should have known someone would pick up on it. In the wake of Goldar’s defeat and Rita being launched into space, Angel Grove has drifted into a stereotypical small town quiet. Trini has let herself be lulled into a false sense of normalcy - with it, she’s forgotten that they are all connected no matter the distance.</p><p>To be more accurate, she’s forgotten that despite her impeccable ability to smother her feelings, the morph is something within and just as she can reach out to touch Billy’s happiness, so others can reach out to Trini too. Trini is unceremoniously reminded of this one Wednesday morning when she wakes to her mother yelling that she has a visitor and said visitor turns out to be Zack Taylor sitting straight backed on her couch, devil-may-care smirk carefully put away in the presence of her mother.</p><p>“Thanks for getting her, Mrs. Herrera,” Zack says politely. His smile is beautiful but stiff and Trini thinks for a moment that he looks like a stranger. Then Zack smiles.</p><p>“Morning, sunshine.”</p><p>Trini reaches out to cuff him, still in her pajamas with her hair frayed at the ends. “It’s stupid early for you to be here.” All Zack does is laugh, reaching out to tug Trini onto the couch with him before throwing an arm around her shoulder, giving her a shake.</p><p>“I talked to Billy. He said he started some kind of computer club with all the younger siblings and a sorry excuse for a pining Ranger? Next club meet is tomorrow so I figured I’d do my civic duty and get rid of the pining before you spoil things for the kids.”</p><p>Trini blinks. She’s used to Zack, used to his idiocy, but this whole intent probing still throws her off every time it happens. She forgets, sometimes, that beneath Zack’s sharp cheekbones and his mischievous grin, he loves so very deeply. It’s always overwhelming to be reminded that he has chosen her, that he thinks she is worth his time when it is already so limited with his constant worry for his mother.</p><p>“Zack, come on. I’m not pining.”</p><p>“Say that to whatever it is you’re throwing out into the morph.”</p><p>Trini feels her chest seize. “What?”</p><p>Zack laughs. It’s quiet, and kind, and Trini watches as his usual smile shifts into an indulgent quirk of his lips. He’s careful as he reaches forward to tap Trini where the swirl in her chestplate would be. “You forget we’re all connected? You may not ever say anything out loud, but you’re always saying something in there. Just took me a while to learn to listen for it.”</p><p>Trini wants to shrink away. She wants to tell Zack to step off, to mind his own business. She wants him to stop needling her about this whole Kim thing because it’s not a joke. Even as she opens her mouth, though, the words won’t form, and Trini just closes her mouth again. Zack hums.</p><p>“Trin, come on. I know I’m always being an ass about things like this but I’m serious now.” There’s a moment of silence and Zack takes Trini’s hands in his, runs his thumbs along her knuckles. He looks around the room before settling his dark eyes onto hers again. “You know it’s okay to feel things, right?”</p><p>It’s long, long moments before Trini can respond. Zack hasn’t stopped running his thumbs across her knuckles, the pads of them calloused from digging around in the quarry and the trainyard, the manual labour jobs he sometimes manages to find. There are times when Trini forgets that they had whole lives before they met. She feels Zack’s in the warmth of his hands around hers.</p><p>“Thanks, Zack.”</p><p>“Hey,” Zack says, quiet, “Anytime.”</p><p>They sit together for moments more. Trini is reminded of the quiet they have when she sleeps over at Zack’s, the only sound the uneven rasp of his mother’s breathing. Zack tells her things in the night. She thinks maybe it’s her turn now.</p><p>“I think I’m mad at Jason for something that isn’t even his fault. It makes me feel like a shitty person.”</p><p>“Okay,” Zack says. He looks at her. “Is this because of Kim?”</p><p>Trini nods, then shakes her head. “No. It’s because of me. I’m the one feeling like this. It’s - It’s on me.”</p><p>“Okay,” Zack says. “What are you doing about it?”</p><p>At this, Trini swallows. “I don’t really know. Beating myself up?”</p><p>“Yeah, I got that part. Can feel it. What else are you doing about it?”</p><p>Trini thinks of the texts she sends Kimberly, short and nondescript, a few words shy of personal. She mentions Jason in them more often than not, hasn’t been able to get herself to ask anything of Kimberly, of how she’s doing, what she’s been doing. Every message that Kimberly sends, every sun drenched picture that has Jason out of focus just behind, feels like it’s making it worse.</p><p>“You need to talk to her, T,” Zack says quietly when Trini gives no answer. Trini, with denial flaring in her chest and the warmth of Zack’s faith singing through the morph, nods.</p><p>“I’ll work on it.”</p><p>“That’s my girl,” Zack says, before smothering her in a hug. He only springs away when Trini’s mother walks into the room again, ostensibly to ask whether he’d like to stay for breakfast but with curiosity and worry plain on her features. Trini says yes before Zack can protest and she listens to him follow her mother, loudly proclaiming he’s the best egg cracker in the world.</p><p>She pulls up her text thread with Kimberly once she gets back upstairs and stares at it, feels her heart thud in her chest.</p><p>
  <em>Morning. Zack ambushed me while I was sleeping, I have to eat breakfast with him now. Hope things are going well with you. See anything beautiful today?</em>
</p><p>The sharpness just beneath her ribs settles, just a little, and she hears Zack’s beautiful laugh mingling with her mother’s. Kimberly’s text back is immediate.</p><p>
  <em>just a good morning text from my favourite girl. things are going better now that i’ve heard from you. j and i have a six hour drive ahead of us today so it’s going to be rough, keep me company?</em>
</p><p><em>Always,</em> Trini texts back before she can think about it.</p><p>Kimberly’s responding message captioned with <em>thanks</em> is a picture of her with the softest look Trini can bear, hair windswept from the passenger seat window rolled down. It settles Trini’s heart the rest of the way.</p><p>--</p><p>Trini brings Zack over to Billy’s the next time, watches him lie on his stomach while Billy talks and takes another photo, captions it with <em>Today we have a new member for the kids’ computer club</em>.</p><p>“Oh, real nice,” Zack snipes as he settles down beside Trini after Billy banishes him from being around the CPU. Trini just grins at him, posts the photo and makes sure to tag him in it. She tags her brothers too, then Billy, and after a few moments of thought, adds Pearl and tags her too. It feels normal like this, like what normal teenagers do, and she leans into Zack’s side.</p><p>“You feel a lot better,” he murmurs after a while. Trini looks up at him but he’s focused on what Billy is saying, watching as Pearl carefully picks apart a computer component Trini still can’t name.</p><p>“I am better. Kim and I are talking more now.”</p><p>“Good,” Zack says. Then he grins, wide and bright. “Good.”</p><p>Zack steals Trini’s phone, snaps a picture of the two of them resting against each other and sends it to Kimberly along with the text <em>u jealous hart?</em></p><p>Kimberly sends a selfie back a few hours later. She’s in that lacy pink tank top thing she loves and a white tee that's gone sheer from water. She looks like she’s standing in the shallows of a lake. Jason is making an outrageous muscle man pose in the background, water waist high.</p><p>
  <em>you’re not even competition, taylor.</em>
</p><p>Zack has already gone home to help his mother with lunch so he doesn’t get to see the stricken look that crosses Trini’s face. It’s just as well, because Trini feels embarrassed just having made it. She smothers the flash of heat as best as she can, knows it’s rushed across her cheeks and made her flush a mottled red. It’s a little sad at how right Kimberly is, even if she doesn’t know it.</p><p>The selfie she sends back to Kimberly is taken at Billy’s kitchen table, her brothers crowded around her and Billy beaming just behind. It’s captioned with <em>What about these boys?</em> and Trini laughs and laughs when Kimberly texts back in seconds, a wry <em>i know when i’m beat</em>.</p><p><em>You didn’t even try</em>, Trini shoots back hours later as she slips into bed. It’s been a quiet evening with her parents, her brothers tired from recounting their afternoon of fun and tucked in with a promise of a library trip to sign out some books on computer hardware in the morning. Trini feels momentarily playful, a little courageous, even, and it’s nice that she isn't as panicked as she thinks she would if this was before. Kimberly has been steady in her replies with snippets of updates throughout the day: where they’ve been eating, the cute little boy Kimberly thought looked like Trini’s youngest brother at a gas station that they stopped at, how smelly Jason was after he came back from a run and decided to smother Kimberly in their very questionable motel room. Trini knows that Kimberly doesn’t have to do this, that she could just be enjoying her time away from Angel Grove instead of constantly looking back.</p><p>A voice clip comes through minutes later, as if Kimberly knew that that’s where Trini’s thoughts were going. Kimberly must still be awake despite having texted that her and Jason were planning on hitting the hay early, anticipating a pre-dawn drive out to a really nice beach an hour or two away. Trini flushes at the follow up of <em>didn’t i?</em> and hovers her thumb over the play button for a moment or two.</p><p>It’s a clip of Kimberly’s laugh that greets her when she finally does let her thumb sink down. It’s lower than normal, quietly huffed into her phone as though Kimberly was trying to keep as quiet as she could but still desperately wanted to let Trini hear her mirth. The sound rushes straight into Trini and she shivers.</p><p>When she closes her eyes, she’s back on that endless road with stars in her chest and Kimberly’s hand in hers, and Trini smiles as Kimberly moves to take a step forward.</p><p>--</p><p>Kimberly’s account slowly fills with pictures, some of scenery, some of herself. There’s one that gets comments turned off - it’s of Jason, silhouetted in the morning sun. They’re up on a cliff of sorts, feet dangling off the edge, and Jason looks so soft in the early yellow light. Trini sees how at ease he is in the way his shoulders slant down just so, the way his back curves. He looks beautiful and young and Kimberly’s caption of <em>it’s always important to take a breath</em> feels like a kind of reminder to Trini herself.</p><p>She double taps it to like it and locks her phone. It’s weeks of normal teenage behaviour that Jason deserves - his silhouette, while always reassuring, looks different through Kimberly’s camera lens. Trini recognizes it later as the softness that comes with love, of being at peace, and startles to see it mirrored by her own reflection.</p><p>--</p><p>And then Kimberly shows up on her doorstep just a little after nine.</p><p>The sun has been out for a few hours already and Trini had woken up feeling restless, unable to tell if it’s her or if there’s someone else pumping through her veins from the morph. It all makes sense when her doorbell rings and Trini opens it to find Kimberly in a black tank and jeans, hands stuffed in her pockets and a nervous smile on her face.</p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>“Hey,” Trini says.</p><p>“So, here I am.” Kimberly says. The duffel bag she has hanging off one shoulder moves up and down as she gives a half-hearted wave. There’s a flannel shirt Trini recognizes as her own that Kimberly must have stolen months ago draped on top and Trini has no idea what to do with that. She barely hears her when Kimberly says, “Official last stop on my road trip.”</p><p>Trini looks behind, can’t find Jason or his truck anywhere.</p><p>“J dropped me off here and went home. I told him I’d need some time.”</p><p>“Oh,” Trini says.</p><p>They’re standing in the doorway like idiots. Trini wants to berate herself but she can’t focus on anything other than how good Kimberly looks, how warm and welcoming she smells. Kimberly doesn’t seem to mind, watches Trini with that soft look Trini’s started to realize that Kimberly makes a lot around her. It’s Kimberly who breaks the silence first.</p><p>“Mind if I drop off my bag? It’s kind of heavy.”</p><p>“Oh, yeah. Of course,” Trini says. She holds a hand out for Kimberly to give it to her, takes a deep breath and tries for brave. “Finally returning my shirt?”</p><p>Kimberly smiles briefly. “Something like that.”</p><p>Before Trini can really ask what that’s supposed to mean, she feels Kimberly’s fingers circle her wrist and she’s tugged forward, out onto the porch. Kimberly’s bag gets left in the foyer, and Kimberly reaches behind her to ease the front door shut.</p><p>“Kim, what are you doing?”</p><p>“I don’t really know, to be honest,” Kimberly says. Trini just blinks at her, and Kimberly blinks back. “I wanted to see you. I wanted - I don’t know.” She takes a breath and Trini feels it rush out against her cheeks. The fingers around her wrist tighten. “I just don’t want to have read this wrong. You have to tell me if I’ve read this wrong, okay?”</p><p>“Okay?” Trini tries, but her heart is thundering. Kimberly is getting closer. Distantly, she thinks of the morph and Zack and prays that he isn’t paying attention because she thinks Kimberly Hart is about to kiss her.</p><p>Kimberly stops just shy of Trini’s lips. They stay like that, suspended but inexorably drawn together in the cool spring air and Trini feels like her heart is going to beat straight out of her chest, hopes Kimberly can’t tell but knows she most probably can because Trini’s sure her pulse is going wild. She can feel Kimberly’s breath against her lips, can almost feel it on her tongue. When Kimberly finally moves, it’s in a whisper that Trini can taste.</p><p>“Trin. You need to help me out here. Am I reading this wrong?”</p><p>Trini’s never been good with words. She doesn’t try to start now.</p><p>“No,” she says, after. Kimberly looks dazed, soft and rich in the sunlight, and Trini leans in to kiss her again, takes in the hint of coffee and toothpaste and the taste of Kimberly’s smile. “No, you didn’t read this wrong.”</p><p>“I’m so glad,” Kimberly murmurs against Trini’s lips. She pulls back slightly, moves to lean in again before stopping herself, and then finally manages to pull back with a wide grin. “Take a picture with me?”</p><p>Trini can only nod. She allows herself to be pulled in by Kimberly, feels their bodies come together until they’re flush and Kimberly can bury her nose in Trini’s hair. She has no idea what her face is doing as Kimberly takes the picture, all she can feel is Kimberly all around her.</p><p>The photo gets posted on Kimberly’s account later, captioned with <em>the best part about leaving is coming home </em>and Trini isn't even surprised by the lovesick face she ended up making.</p>
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